PS 3515 
.P268 
N5 
1922 
Copy 1 



NIGHT 



A FANTASY 

by 



LOWELL S. HALE 



rt+ 





PETER G. BOYLE 
267-275 West 17th Street 



Fuhlisher 
New York City 






COPYRIGHT, 1922, BY PETER G. BOYLE 



C1A684003 



mi^, .•..v.::l 



AUG 28 1922 



NIGHT 

A FANTASY 



I KNEW not why I sought the wood 
Or lingered in the lonely wood; 
I knew not why I came and stood 
By the cold and heartless stone, 
Nor did I know why I came alone. 



II 



The air was thick, and the darksome gloom 
Hung like the pall of an ancient tomb ; 
'Twas the oppressive sort that hovers o'er 
The dismal stones of a dungeon floor. 
God! what a stillness spread around, 
So still that even half a sound 
Seemed to shake the slumbering ground. 



6 NIGHT 



III 



A VAPOB rose like spirits of dead 

Over the darnels' and mandrakes' bed, 

The poison ivy, the foul henbane, 

And toadstools rank that breed in the rain, 

Forming a woof no star could melt 

Yet one less seen than one that's felt. 

And the odor that came so dank and cold 

Smelt like^ that from a corse grown old. 



IV 



Of a sudden, loud as a trumpet's blare, 
A screaming sound rent the startled air, 
A fearful shriek on the wings of night 
That made the ground tremble in fright. 
And ere the last of its tones grew still 
A mighty wind swept down from the hill 
Bending the trees, while down beneath 
Leaves blew like snow in the northwind's teeth. 
And a bedlam of sound in wild uproar 
Reeked the night with tumult o'er. 



NIGHT 



V 



Then in the sky like an awful doom 

An old witch flew on a crescent broom; 

Thrice she circled over the trees, 

A black cat perched on each of her knees; 

Thrice she laughed, then flying higher 

Each cat spat forth a ball of fire 

That embered long ere it reached the ground 

And fell with a hissing, cracking sound. 

VI 

Horrors ! an opening formed in the sky 

Thru which there shone a monstrous eye ; 

'Twas larger than a copper moon 

And brighter far than sun at noon : 

Its light fell in a hawthorn glade. 

And in that place it only stayed 

Gleaming, the ground so very bright 

That e^en the brown leaves there seemed white. 

VII 

'TwAs awful ! my flesh grew taut, then creeped ; 



8 NIGHT 

What was this place in terror steeped? 
A something moved to that spectre place 
Where the light revealed its hairless face: 
Half it a snake's, and half a man's; 
It had no feet, legs, arms, nor hands, 
And from its back so thick and round 
A knot of snakes squirmed to the ground. 

vni 

With hollow sound, like voice from the dead, 
Christ! a skull, a grimacing head 
Eolled to the midst of the hawthorn glade 
Where there it stopped, and then was laid 
On a toadstool huge with grim intent 
As tho by the evil spirit sent. 
It seemed to try some speech to cause 
From the tongueless cavern in its jaws. 
And the breathless air came thru its teeth 
Shaking the leaves on the ground beneath. 
And its orbless eyes without a gleam 
Looked twice as deep in the whitish beam. 
'Twas some foreboding of an awful deed 
That held that head to the loathsome weed. 



NIGHT 9 

IX 

Then into the light the wicked eye made 
Hideous shapes, disorderly 'rayed, 
Stealthily crept to the midst of the glade, 
Forming a ring round the grinning skull 
Till it seemed at last the place was full. 
There sat great toads and horned snails, 
And scaly things with twitching tails. 
And shapes deformed to strangest size 
With flaming breath and beady eyes. 



AxD next there came thru routes of the air 

Shapes that one might well declare 

The visions queer in a madman's dream, 

So queer and awful did they seem. 

There were bluish owls and vampires gray 

That never once saw light of day ; 

Enormous bats, and carrion crows. 

And vultures huge with talons closed 

Over portions of the day's repast. 

Down flew harpies in flight so fast 



10 NIGHT 

That in their course they soon had passed 
The small and slower birds of prey — 
Nighthawks and orfreys by the way. 
There came wan ghouls and filmy ghosts, 
And demons red, innumerable hosts 
Of greenish imps and sneering fiends 
With Satanic looks and impious miens, 
Chattering, swarming, hissing, gleaming. 
Flipping, flapping, crying, screaming. 
Snarling, laughing, yelling, growling. 
Falling, screeching, flaring, howling. 
Flopping, beating, kicking, tearing, 
Down thru the air with wild eyes glaring. 
As round the skull the hosts descended 
When their maddening flight had ended. 



XI 



The wild wind now swept back to its lair 
Swishing the trees with their branches bare. 
Then the noises stopped with such a pall 
I could almost hear a dewdrop fall. 



NIGHT 11 

xn 

THAT to me should fall this sight, 
With Horror glued and stiff with fright; 
Such had not been man's lot before, 

At least by man by life's closed door. 
My hair, which earlier in the night 
Was black, now fast was turning white. 

1 doubted not, ere the night should go. 
That I'd find my locks grown white as snow. 

XIII 

Niow again I heard that old witch laugh 
As though her voice were cracked in half. 
And its dismal snores and creaking tones 
Were like a demon's breaking bones. 
It ended in a grating sound 
Like a millstone makes in turning 'round. 

XIV 

The skull did shake, and its visage bare 
Turned to the sky with its vacant stare, 



12 NIGHT 

WTien witli hardly a swish or stir 
The old witch lit where formed for her 
Was a round spot, a vacant space 
Beside the skulPs upturned face, 
Then with a gaunt and bony hand 
Waved a greeting to the gruesome band. 
While a brown toad with ominous eye 
Tethered her broom to a tree nearby. 
And her cats with feline instinct bred 
Curled by the side of the bony head. 

XV 

Ugliness, ah! if thou wert to brag, 

Then in truth this fearful hag 

Was more than queen, the highest peer 

Of ugly wenches everywhere. 

She wore a hat with peaked crown 

'Neath which some stiff, coarse hair hung down 

In many strands of loosened tiers 

That half concealed her tufted ears. 

'Neath shaggy brows of reddish hair 

Green eyes peered out with a burning stare 

Sending along their nicotant sight 



NIGHT 13 

Slanting streaks of greenish light 

That seared their way thru flesh and bone 

And cracked atwain the hardest stone. 

In contrast to her hollow cheek 

Her nose stuck out like vulture's beak; 

Thin, bloodless lips, of ashen hue, 

Cracked and parched, disclosed to view 

A few remaining hollow teeth. 

Her sharp and withered chin beneath 

Was covered o'er with slime and scum 

That from her mouth, half closed, had come. 

Her back was bent, her body thin. 

And every bone showed 'neath her skin ; 

'Tween folds of a robe she wore about. 

Her long, lean ribs were sticking out, 

Pushing it seemed as if to tear 

The bonds that held them captive there. 



XVI 

The witch now rolled those gleaming eyes, 
Then, looking 'round, spake in this wise: 
**My friends, yet vassals one and all, 



14 NIGHT 

How well ye hearken to my call; 

Thy just reward, noble crew, 

In joy shall be, a swill of brew. 

And eye feast for thine eyes so bright 

On thy Lord who soon will grace thy sight. 

Thou shalt Satan see, his lovely features, 

And revel with him fairest creatures; 

subjects his! vassals mine! 

Enemies all to the mortal swine, 

Let thy loving hearts entwine 

With Pluto's, and let gladness shine 

When thou hast drunk the witches ' wine. 



XVII 



And as she ended then this speech 
With its shrill tone and grating screech, 
She, in her flowing robe did reach 
And snatch some shining silver vials 
Some of which she flung in piles 
And others set down in a row. y- 

The first I saw was labeled *'Woe,'' 



NIGHT 15 

The second one this figure bore 

Engraved in gold, the number ^'4/' 

With underneath these words, less plain, 

''Envy, Heartache, Jealousy, Pain." 

The third, its words were very dim. 

And the vial slantwise turned its rim. 

But methought I read ''Horror'* grim. 

The fourth did stand in bold relief 

With letters tall, the one word "Grief;'* 

And the fifth, its legend bright and clear. 

Held these two words, "Sorrow" and "Fear"; 

And one I saw was labeled "Lies," 

And one "Bats' Blood" and one "Toads' Eyes." 

There were lizard lymph, skunk bladders. 

And venom thick from poison adders, 

And dragon scales, weasel livers, 

And tadpoles slick from muddy rivers; 

Foam from the mouth of a frenzied fool. 

Filthy scum from a sluggish pool. 

Vulture's slime from a disgorged meal. 

And tendons picked from a devil's heel. 

Ah! these are not half the vials that stood 

There in the midst of the haunted wood, 

But enough to poison a sea of blood. 



16 NIGHT 

xvm 

Deep fascinated by such display 

Of silver vials in bright array, 

I scarce did see the hag had begun 

To empty the vials one by one 

Into the skull where now it stood 

Balanced on a ghost's peaked hood, 

A trembling ghost whose form did shake 

Like a swaying tree in an aspen brake ; 

But now I saw the skull had been 

Placed there to pour the foul stuff in, 

And vial by vial, and size by size, 

Poured by the witch made the contents rise 

Till foam oozed out from its orbless eyes 

In frothy drops of poison slime 

That dripped with a sort of rhythmic time 

Onto the pale and pallid face 

Of the bloodless thing that held in place 

That bony urn, that upturned head. 

That cauldron grim left from the dead. 

XIX ^^ 

The witch did seem to make her brew 



NIGHT 17 

For a larger band than her usual crew, 
For in quandary she a moment thought, 
Then, like a woman much distraught. 
She in her robe frantically sought 
Till at last two spiders deftly caught; 
She placed each one in an eyeless socket 
Of the whitish bone, where like a pocket 
Of deep gloom grim shadows played. 
Then wondrous sight! each spider made 
A silken web, rare woven woof 
Over each eye so close leak-proof 
That well it held the seething tide 
Of frothy foam to the far inside. 



My eyes now set with rigid stare 
That with it one might well compare 
Magnetic glance which would compel 
Fascination like in a spell. 
My sight ne'er wavered from that skull 
But had yet withal a vision full 
Of everything in the circle's light 
From its border dim to center bright. 



18 NIGHT 

XXI 

The witch next sent her burning stare 
Into the skull with steady glare 
Until the brew 'neath such a gleam 
Began to hiss, and boil, and steam, 
And misty curls rose up to the sky 
Till lost in the light of the wicked eye. 

XXII 

At last the Avitch seemed satisfied. 
Then her thin lips grinned long and wide. 
And turning her gaze from the skull 's inside, 
'*'Tis done! 'Tis done!" she cackled and cried. 
The pallid ghost passed the skull around 
Where crouching low upon the ground 
Each member of this gruesome crew 
Drank, sipped, or lapped its share of brew: 
Some were snarling, some were growling, 
Some were hissing, some were howling. 
While each of them fought to be next in line 
And the last to drink moved 'way with whine. 
This clamor loud and noisy din 



NIGHT 19 

Lasted, as long as the sknll held in 
A drop of brew, one single drop; 
When that was gone they all did stop. 

XXIII 

Oh, God ! it came so suddenly 

That how it came I could not see, 

An awful thing, — delusion's snare — 

Half which seemed it and half seemed air. 

No definite shape, no outline made 

The place it started, it stopped or stayed, 

But gradually by slow degree 

Assumed a shape I well could see 

Was solid mass, contorted hulk 

Of hideousness and monstrous bulk. 

Ah, well I knew — and so would you — 

'Twas Satan there within my view! 

XXIV 

I TEiED to shout, I tried to scream; 
My tongue was stiff like a solid beam. 
And thru my lips so parched and dry 



20 NIGHT 

No sound escaped, not even a sigh. 
My hair, uprooted, every strand 
Frozen straight, so stiff did stand 
That a falling twig touched a lock 
Which crumhled like a frozen rock. 
Still as a statue, no more nor less, 
I speechless stood, and motionless. 
My frozen blood stopped every vein 
And I was dead all 'cept my brain 
Which now with horror occupied 
My numbed skull side by side. 



XXV 

As Satan's shape grew close and clear 
I saw his face drawn in a sneer, 
With brutal jaw and long slit mouth 
And apish lips, and nose uncouth. 
His head was bald yet its rim did bear 
A few sparse tufts of steel-spun hair. 
His doggish ears hung flapping down 
Like the long ears of a hunting hound; 
His hands did end in metal claws 



NIGHT 21 

Long and curved with teeth like saws, 

And his metal feet were cleft atwain, 

Round each of which there hung a chain; 

His ankles bore many a scale, 

And round one of them was wrapped his tail, 

A harpoon tail whose point was round. 

Worn keen and sharp from dragging the ground ; 

His leathery skin was covered o 'er 

With many a blotch, and blur, and sore. 

And blemish dull, and carbon spot, 

And streaks of black, and grime, and soot. 

One time that skin had been a grey, 

But heat perhaps had borne away 

All semblance to a color true. 

And only shades remained to view. 



XXVI 



His terrible eyes ! even now 
I shudder when I think of how 
Their bitter glance, their acid stare 
Left etchings in the fuming air. 



22 NIGHT 

They were soulless eyes, soulless as a grave, 
Of spirit devoid, but somehow gave 
Expression from a master mind 
Which their depths did seem to find 
In tiendish glance and glitt'ring light 
That darted from their pupils bright. 
They were flinty hard and did contain 
Sinful looks from a Hellish brain, — 
A reptilian glance of deep design. 
Soulless indeed, but knowledge behind 
Like soulless eyes of the knowing asp 
That charm the bird within its grasp — 
And the shape of those awful eyes! 
They were cut like gems facetwise. 
And like gems shone glittering bright 
In scintillating spots of light. 
Yellow they were, of clearest hue. 
Except the centers where spots of blue 
Were circled round with rings of black 
That reached to yellow's edge and back. 
No common cord their sight did train. 
But each eye separate from its twain 
To right or left could gaze at will "^^^ 

While the other moved or remained still. 



NIGHT 23 



XXVII 



Theee Satan sat upon the ground, 

One of his eyes moving around 

To survey all the creatures hy, 

While the other turned up to the sky 

With gaze intent at the wicked eye. 

'Twas hideous shape from monster's womb, 

Father of Sin, Brother of Grloom, 

Wedded to Hell whose siren call 

Made him her Lord there over all 

That Hateful Hive where now he raves 

Over tortured souls in Stygian caves. 

XXVIII 

By Satan's feet, scarce a rod away, 

The garish skull now glistening lay 

Where carelessly it had been cast 

When usefulness and service passed. 

He turned to it with insolent stare: 

** Begone!" he said. *^Get hence from there." 

Then with a kick of his metal foot, 

That made great clouds of flying soot. 



24 NIGHT 

He sent the head over the ground 

Where with every leap and bound 

It made a hollow, rattling sound. 

**Alas!*^ thought I, '4s this the end 

Of that poor bone that once had been 

A part of man 'neath this same sky 

Who lived and loved, and thought like I? 

That parched hone, that sterile dome 

In the misty past was once the home 

Of some fond soul who never chose 

To sever bonds of earth so close. 

What misery ! what anguish deep ! 

If that poor soul could only peep 

Back here into this earthly plane 

Where earth's last ties were so profaned, 

Where only now there did remain 

A fleshless mask, a pound of lime. 

Mute mockery of man blasphemed by time. * 

XXIX 

By now those fiends all had grown ^_/ 
So drunken that their eyes all shone 
With phosphorescent sort of glaze 



NIGHT 25 

And madness rank within their gaze. 

Like dogs they were that tug and strain 

In restless leash with hunter ^s chain, 

Maddened by sight or smell of prey 

Ere master's command sends them away. — 

Ah, then at last these words, they came 

Prom Satan's throat in a burst of flame: 

**Ye chosen few, my subjects all. 

Set thee at once, ere the dawn does fall. 

To make merry; now do begin 

Your shameful step, your dance of sin.*' 

Then o 'er the glade a strange sound stirred — 

The weirdest sound I ever heard: 

'Twas a sort of music, low at first, 

But opened up with sudden burst 

Of creepy strains and wailing tones 

That seemed to penetrate my bones. 

Somehow I thought 'twas a lost soul 

Crying to God from its hellish hole, 

For oft it seemed to strike the air 

With a long wail of deep despair. 

XXX 

Then the dance was on, but that dance 



26 NIGHT 

Was more a maelstrom than a dance ; 

'Twas seething mass that spun and whirled, 

And swayed and rocked, and turned and curled, 

While held in lewd, immodest places 

The fiends hung close in tight embraces. 

Two great toads of 'color brown 

In wicked posture danced around ; 

One's mouth was glued to the other's chin 

From whence green blood dripped o'er their skin. 

Two vultures black were madly tripping 

With frothy mouths half -closed and dripping. 

grotesque sight, the old witch clung 

Onto the devil with hanging tongue; 

Her skinny legs did creak and grate 

Like hinges old on a rusty gate : 

Around her hips so thin and frail 

S'atan had wrapped his harpoon tail 

Whose sharpened end did swish and pound 

Against her bones with a cracking sound. 

'Twas pandemonium there bestrown 

With maddened fiends deep drunken grown. 

Passion unleased, and Hell unclosed 

A swaying mass in a fury's throes. ^ ^ 

It seemed they danced an eternity. 



NIGHT 27 

But a minute seemed an age to me 

As it always does under strain or stress 

And we're unwilling witnesses. 

XXXI 

Then all at once above this din 

Loud and clear o'er the distant fen 

There came a call like a clarion clear 

From the lusty throat of Chanticleer. 

The dance did stop and a silent stress 

Seemed to jar with its suddenness. 

The old witch shrieked and with a leap 

She fell inert in a flaming heap ; 

The two black cats burst forth in flame, 

And the broom flew back from whence it came. 

The devil hissed with an awful sound 

Then faded away into the ground; 

The fiends and ghosts, and things that fly 

Upward flew to the wicked eye; 

The animals all with stealthy step 

Into the bushes slunk or crept; 

The wicked eye that shone so bright 



28 NIGHT 

Lost all its gleam of brilliant light; 
The garish skull that glistening lay 
Crumbled to dust and blew away; 
And soon that haunted hawthorn glade 
Showed not a sign of the scene it made. 

XXXII 

Ah ! it dawned on me that in that guise 

Of fiends that left I recognized 

Many a man I knew full well 

That in my town did live and dwell. 

Wasn't one of them the undertaker, 

One the butcher, one the baker? 

And I'd swear by Grod or my soul of life! 

One was Grimes who beats his wife. 

Indeed I'm sure, on a snake I saw 

The sneering face of my son-in-law. 

One I thought was Doctor Gay 

Who long since had passed away, 

And one did seem the gambling man 

Who owed me the sum of four pounds, ten; 

Yet o'er this fact I did not ponder, 



NIGHT 29 

For I had passed the stage of wonder 
And to strange sights now at last 
Became inured to all that passed. 

xxxin 

Grey dawn peeped down from o 'er the hill, 
And shaking free from its nightly chill 
The gladdened air hroke in a hreeze 
And brushed the dewdrops from the trees, 
Bright shining drops of silver dew 
That glistened as they clung onto 
Many a leaf and many a stem 
Where they clustered like a diadem; 
And then nearby a little bird 
With sweetest notes I ever heard 
Burst into song, his roundelay 
Of welcome to the coming day; 
And somewhere by a distant hill 
I heard the sound of a rippling rill 
Whose murmur low from its hidden lair 
Came soothing sweet like a mother's prayer. 
From above I heard an angePs bell 



30 NIGHT 

Whose tinkles sprinkled as they fell 
In melodies down the distant dell. 
Then came showers of lilies shorn 
From flowery wings of budding morn, 
Airily they fell to the wrinkled sod 
As light as steps by fairies trod. 
And, ah, that glade, that hawthorn glade ! 
So diff 'rent now a picture made : 
There many a rose raised her head 
And blushing a tender shade of red. 
She waited for Sol to warm her bed. 
While a spotted fawn leaped in play 
Over the sward, and far away. 
Then the sun uprose gleaming bright, 
A burnished ball of golden light. 



XXXIV 

At last I turned my way to go ; 
My back was bent, my step was slow. 
My hoary hair was like the snow. 
'Twas an aged man that bent his way. 
But wiser quite, ah! who can say? 



NIGHT 31 

**NoE scorn the end which fancy oft doth lend 
The soul's eternal interests to promote; 
Death, darkness, danger are our natural lot. 
And evil spirits may our walk attend 
For aught the wisest know or comprehend.'' 



